Reading this thread, I'm so glad I live in a country where government procedures at least somewhat make sense. I don't think there's any other place where the government failing to pass a budget wouldn't mean that government collapsing, new elections being called, and civil servants keeping the lights on until a new government is formed. It's crazy that the biggest economy in the world can just stop paying its employees because two political parties can grind the whole system to a halt.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

I always wondered how are furloughed people tolerating not getting paid and not quitting. With how frequent it happens, some has to be looking for a new job. Yes I know some people can't find jobs outside of govt right now

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

people talk about separation of church and state, but i'm pretty sure america has missed the even more important separation of government and state

the way it should work and how i think it works in most places these days; is that the parliament is the main thing that keeps things running and is made up of hundreds of people from different parties, and then on top of that you have the government which is a subset of those people who make larger decisions. And if for some reason the government ceases being able to function (e.g. because enough parliamentarians oppose the current government) then it mostly just means that the big decisions have to be delayed until government can be restored, and aside from that no one notices much of anything.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Built-in inertia in the institutions of the state should ideally keep the state and it's institutions from collapsing even in the absence of the government. Absence of governance should only mean that new acts aren't passed until a government resumes, it shouldn't mean that existing laws and acts become unenforced and existing systems (like civil servant roles) cease to function or be funded.

This inertia really helps when prime minister's and governments are regularly deleted, as we had in Australia some years back, and as the UK had with Lettuce Truss et. al.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

Very true.

And the people making these decisions are all multi-millionaires themselves and completely insulated from the fallout, which to me is the most egregious aspect, but here in the US you basically can't run for office if you aren't already wealthy.